Jasmine Birtles
Your money-making expert. Financial journalist, TV and radio personality.
Index-tracking funds: the easy way to invest in the stock market
Moneymagpie Team
17th Nov 2020
Index-tracking funds offer an easy, cheap and non-frightening way to invest in the stock market! Not only are they cheap and easy, but they actually make money (over time) and they’re recommended for people like you and me by Warren Buffett no less!
Also known as ‘trackers’, this investment type is a no-fuss way to put money into the stock market.
As always, investment in the stock market runs the risk of getting back less than you invested. That’s why you should always invest for the long-term, at least five years, to see returns.
Here’s your quick guide to index-tracking funds and how to invest in them today.
- What are index-tracking funds?
- Will I make or lose money?
- How do I invest?
- Get it wrapped in an ISA or put it into your own ISA wrapper
What are index-tracking funds?
First, let’s look at what the stock market actually is.
A company gets listed on the stock market once it’s met certain strict regulations. You can then buy a little part of that company, called a share. When the company does well, your share price goes up – and you often receive an income from dividends, when the company distributes some profits to shareholders.
You can buy as little as one share in one company – but it’s better to buy several shares in a range of companies. This is called ‘diversifying your portfolio’. Investing in various companies spreads the risk: if one of your share companies doesn’t perform well, but another does brilliantly, you’ll gain overall.
How do tracker funds come into it?
Tracker funds aren’t like a single company that you buy shares in. Instead, these funds track (see? Clue is in the name!) a part of a stock market index. Your money is invested in every company in that defined index, so you effectively invest in the index itself.
When the index average goes up – or down – your share value does the same. This varies every day as the markets change.
Indices across the globe can be tracked too.
You might follow a UK-specific index like the FTSE 100, which is made up of the top 100 companies in the UK. You could also invest in an overseas index tracker – which is a much simpler way to invest in global funds than buying individual shares.
The most common indices you’ll see tracker funds follow include:
- FTSE 100 (the top 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange)
- FTSE 250 (companies that start at 101 and finish at 350 in the LSE – also known as the ‘mid-caps’)
- FTSE All-Share (all companies listed on the LSE)
- AIM (Smaller companies not yet listed on the LSE)
- Dow Jones (An American stock exchange)
- Nasdaq (Another American exchange)
- Nikkei (The exchange in Japan)
- Hang Seng (Hong Kong’s exchange)
- DAX (The German exchange)
Investing using index trackers means you can put your money into several of these global exchanges to diversify your portfolio.
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the different types of indices to track
We recommend you start by tracking one of the three main UK indices. The FTSE 100 and the FTSE All-Share tend to perform pretty similarly, but the third, the FTSE 250, goes up and down a little more because it’s made up of middle-sized companies, for which the prices can be a bit more volatile.
Any company listed on the London Stock Exchange must adhere to strict financial regulations set by the Financial Conduct Authority. The only market that companies don’t have to meet such stringent regulations for is the Alternative Investment Market, which is often for smaller or newer companies and is regulated directly by the London Stock Exchange (instead of UKLA).
We’ll focus on the FTSE indices here because AIM investments suit more experienced investors.
The FTSE 100
This measures the largest 100 companies in the UK by value.
The top 100 companies represent about 80% of the value of the whole of the London-based market (the FTSE All-Share), so you can get a pretty good idea of what the stock market as a whole is doing from how these top 100 companies are performing.
This is why they report on the FTSE 100 in the news – if the FTSE 100 is up a few points then the overall feeling is positive – companies are generally perceived to be doing well.
The FTSE 250
The next 250 biggest companies in size make up the FTSE 250 – in other words, the companies ranked 101 to 350 in the market. Companies in this index are generally known as the ‘mid-caps’, meaning that they have a capitalisation (what they would be worth if you sold them) that is somewhere in the middle between the FTSE 100 and all the other tiddly little companies that are listed below.
Interestingly, many of the traditionally ‘British’ companies, like manufacturers and house-building companies, are often found in the FTSE 250. For that reason, investors often choose to track this index if they believe the next few years will be bright for the British economy. They’ll look for signals such as a falling unemployment rate, which means more people are holding down jobs and able to spend more on housing, travel and shopping.
The FTSE All-Share
This measures the performance of the major part of the companies (around 700 of them) listed on the London Stock Exchange. This includes each one that sells shares to the public, from the very big household names like BT to the tiddlers, such as estate agents. Although it includes all of the publicly listed companies in the country it moves up and down in a similar way to the FTSE 100 because the first hundred companies in the index account for the vast majority of the wealth of the whole lot.
Will I make money?
Probably, people have so far, but it’s not guaranteed.
Over the last 100 years the FTSE has gone up. People who invested directly into the market and left their money there for a least five years have seen it grow. However, as the adverts always say, past performance is no guarantee of future growth, so keep that in mind.
Take a look at our article on index-tracking funds versus cash savings to see in detail how – and why – you’re more likely to grow your wealth with investments instead of savings.
The rollercoaster nature of the FTSE
It is likely that the FTSE will continue to grow over the years, albeit in the rollercoaster way that it always does. An index-tracker is a good, clean, cheap and easy way of getting a piece of that growth.
If you invest in a FTSE 100 index-tracking fund, your money will be spread over all one hundred companies in this index. This means that you will be investing in at least 100 companies all in one go, though you will have a different amount in each one.
Over time, the net effect has been that these funds have gone up. Historically, the stock market has always gone upwards, though in a very bumpy way. Sometimes it goes down for a few years but then it goes up again for a few more years. After all, that is what it has done for the last hundred years or so.
Trackers charge less than the managed funds because they’re run by computers which, unlike your average City fund manager, don’t expect a new Porsche Boxster and a holiday in the Bahamas every year. In fact, you shouldn’t pay more than 1% a year in management fees for your index-tracker, and many charge less than 0.2%. Index-tracking funds are relatively easy to invest in. The only hard part is choosing which one.
How do I invest in a tracker fund?
It’s very simple to invest in an index-tracking fund. You can even do it online – there’s no need for a middleman stockbroker.
Quite a few investment companies offer tracker funds. It was Vanguard, an American company, that started them originally. You can invest directly with them as they operate in the UK now. Also some household names like Scottish Widows, M&G, Legal & General and Fidelity also offer them.
Here are some of the main ones that offer index-tracking funds
You can also buy them through investment platforms that have a wide selection of funds. For example,
These platforms also offer a similar type of tracker fund called an Exchange-Traded Fund. These operate in the same way as an index-tracker, but follow a range of market sections, such as commodities or even countries. You can read more about them in our ETF investing article here.
Make sure you look at and compare the account fees before choosing the platform that’s right for you. When you’ve found the right platform for you, sign up to an online account. You need to confirm some details, such as your UK residency status, age, and address.Then, transfer your money to the account. Use the information the platform provides about the index-tracker funds to choose ones you want to invest in. When you’re ready, use the money you’ve transferred to your account to buy shares in that fund.
You also get an option to have some or all of your investment wrapped in a tax-saving ISA. This is a good thing to do if you haven’t already used up your stocks and shares ISA allowance.
Many companies that provide tracker funds also offer them pre-wrapped in an ISA which makes it easier. Legal & General and AJ Bell Youinvest, for example, both offer their funds already wrapped in an ISA.
You can split your personal allowance between an equities ISA and cash ISA.
The provider asks if you want to put in just a lump sum or make regular monthly investments.It depends on your circumstances what you do here. If you have a lump of money to invest now then go ahead and put it in. But if you don’t, and you think you can afford a certain amount each month, then set that up as a direct debit from your bank account.
Sometimes, drip-feeding money regularly actually helps you to grow your wealth compared to a lump sum. If, for example, your £1000 investment buys 1000 shares at £1 in one month, the second month these shares might go down in price. Say you invested £500 in the first month for 500 shares; then the next month, you can buy 750 shares for another £500 investment. So, you could buy 1250 shares for the same £1000 investment over two months.
You could also set up an ISA wrapper of your own into which you put a tracker fund and some other investments, depending on what interests you.
Sitting on your investment
Setting up your online account still means there’s some paperwork involved. Once completed, you can invest!
It’s easy to ‘set and forget’ index-tracking funds. You don’t need to be as active as when you’ve invested in individual companies.
Leave your investments as long as you can, too. This helps you to ride out the inevitable bumps in the road every stock market investor experiences. When you invest via an ISA wrapper, you can also choose whether you want to automatically reinvest any profit or take it as cash. Reinvestment is, inevitably, the best option here if you can afford to leave your fund alone. Over time, the compound returns will grow significantly.
When you’re confident with investing in indices on the London Stock Exchange, consider branching out to a global index. This diversifies your portfolio to mitigate some risk – and is a fun way to stay interested in your investing, too!
*This is not financial or investment advice. Remember to do your own research and speak to a professional advisor before parting with any money.
I learnt recently that well over half of managed funds fail to beat the index. It’s incredible that we pay all those big fees to get a substandard product! I don’t know if tracker funds are the long term solution but they’re certainly more appealing than a managed option.
Hello,
I am thinking of taking your advice and investing in a FTSE index tracker fund. However, (and I know that these investments take a long view and this won’t be relevant in a few years time), but with the present LIBOR situation about to hit home, and this already having an adverse affect on the UK stock market, would it therefore be safer to invest in a global trust, technology or emerging market abroad at present?
Or, does it work the other way around and it’s a good time to buy shares now, and hope things improve massively, yielding a larger increase!!? I’m new to all this, so forgive my ignorance!
Thanks in advance,
R
I would love to know the answer to this also??
can tracker funds produce income ie dividends on a regular basis or are they only for growth?
You mention index trackers, but you don’t offer any link to sites such as smart-beta that give a breakdown of each of the trackers’ performance and volatility.
Nor do you mention fundamental trackers, such a the Munro fund.
Most of the links on this page go nowhere so it was not much use to me.
“There’s also nothing to stop you investing in a fund that tracks one of the many other indices, such as AIM”
Could you please name one? Thank you!
Sure, Legal & General, for example, has index trackers that track the US index, a European index and a Global index. there’s also HSBC Pacific – those are just as examples.
Hi,
I wish to choose which company stocks i want to invest in. Can this be done in any way? As an example say if I wanted to invest in Next, can I go to the bank where I hold my tracker fund and tell them that I want to specifically buy some Next shares?
Well if you want to buy shares in Next you would need to do this through a stockbroker. You can do it through an online stockbroker (which is the cheapest and easiest option) like TD Waterhouse. You could also do it through your bank if they have a share-dealing service although that will probably be more expensive. If you have a tracker fund then that will ‘track’ a whole range of companies, not just one, so you can’t mix the two types of investing. I’ll do a step-by-step article on how to buy shares in individual companies like Next so that you know.
That would be really helpful. When is the article likely to be done by so that I can keep an eye out for it? Thanks
Hi
I heard a lady on the radio yesterday who spoke of this site, and I find this is all really interesting, but how easy is it to close or withdraw from these schemes and would you loose money etc.
thanks
Hi Ciaran, It’s pretty easy to open and close these. You can withdraw your money just by contacting the tracker fund company (either by email or by phone) and asking them to transfer the money into your bank account. Yes you certainly could lose money but you’re less likely to if you leave it in there for several years (ideally 10 or more I think). These are long-term investments and they only really work if you keep them for many years.
thanks, best wishes.
Ciaran
Thanks for sharing, I just wanted to let you know that your blog doesnt show up perfectly on the blackberry browser but I am probably still in a minority of users.